Spring Awakenings

Burn My Dread

Sunday, 4/26/12, Junes Food Court, Mid-Afternoon

"At Junes, every day is customer appreciation day! Every day is great at your Junes!"

For perhaps the thousandth time, the mega store jingle rang out through the food court. Naoto would be lying if she said it didn't drive her crazy to hear it on loop like that, but it was a necessary evil in order to maintain a neutral meeting place.

For the past year, the Junes food court was the primary hangout for the whole Investigation Team. Whether it was discussing actual information related to the case, studying, or just a friendly get-together, Junes was the heart and soul of the group. It helped that Teddie and Yosuke worked at the store, which meant they always had tabs on when the food court wasn't so busy.

For all its positives, there were some downsides, namely the food. Naoto had skipped breakfast in a fit of anxiety over her lunch meeting, so she decided to spring for a basic beef bowl that the food court had just recently began selling as a means to combat the popularity of the Aiya Chinese restaurant nearby. It was terrible ; the beef was undercooked, the rice was soggy, and the side of vegetables felt rubbery and microwaved to all hell. Naoto choked down a few bites before hastily throwing it in the nearby garbage bin. It made her almost prefer the cooking of Chie, Rise and Yukiko. Almost .

She was now facing the somewhat painful combo of nerves and an upset stomach. She wasn't one to get nervous, especially when needing to talk to someone she felt she could trust, but today was very different. She would have to do her best to talk about something that had been plaguing her life like a curse, and yet be general enough that she wouldn't arouse suspicion of who was causing her this stress. A tall order, especially when that friend was the perceptive heir to the Amagi inn.

The day had turned out to be a bit hotter than expected, which caused Naoto to remove her hat and fan herself for a few moments as she waited for Yukiko. Naoto had wanted to look professional yet casual, so she had dressed in a long sleeve turquoise shirt and black slacks. She had considered a bright yellow tie with the shirt, but she had decided that may have been a bit too formal for the occasion. In the growing heat she quickly began rolling up the sleeves of the shirt, feeling the sweat pool around her arms. As Naoto wrestled with her soggy sleeves, Yukiko appeared out of the shadow of the sliding glass doors.

At first glance, she seemed like a princess from an old folk tale: pale and dainty, with beautiful black hair that shined and shimmered all the way down to her back, complimented by an impeccable fashion sense. As the heiress to one of the oldest businesses in the town, Yukiko was a popular student, but could often be mistaken by her classmates as cold due to her polite but sometimes shy and aloof nature. Of course, that was never really the case; Yukiko's shyness stemmed from a deeply internalized struggle.

Beneath her quiet demeanor, Yukiko had hidden the feeling that she was a caged bird, destined to inherit an inn by mere accident of birth. The struggle to balance her duty to her family and her own hopes and dreams often frustrated her into isolation. These feelings manifested themselves physically in the TV world, where it had been confronted by Yu and the others. Naoto had not been around for the battle with her shadow self, but she had been assured that it was as intense and wild as the those that came after it.

With her shadow's defeat came acceptance that perhaps Inaba wasn't the ball and chain she had made it out to be. This new outlook encouraged Yukiko to succeed her parents and become the next innkeeper, dedicated to preserving the proud reputation the Amagi inn maintained. The inn was a popular tourist attraction for the otherwise plain town of Inaba; many city folk were allured by its astute traditionalist ways. As such, Yukiko inherited no small feat; she was often very busy around the holidays and frequently missed school in order to help with the inn's upkeep.